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Thursday, July 13, 2006

Support Our Troops, Vote John Kline Out

John Kline (R-MN) can now order a new Minnesota 'Support Our Troops' license plate design to put on his car. But if Kline really wanted to show support for American troops, shouldn't his past voting record reflect those same value?

4 comments:

Formed in 1920 and chartered by Congress in 1932, the million-member DAV is the official voice of America's service-connected disabled veterans -- a strong, insistent voice that represents all of America's 2.1 million disabled veterans, their families and survivors."

The ratings indicate the degree that each elected official supported the interests of the DAV organization in that year.To find out what specific votes were used in determining Kline's rating of Zero (lowest given to MN Reo)...go to their website at: www.dav.org

As a veteran with a 10 percent disability, John Kline receives $112 per month (Tax Free!) from the Department of Veterans Affairs, in addition to his congressional salary of $160K. His disability income increased about 2 percent over the previous fiscal year in one of the few bills passed by the 109th Congress to improve benefits to veterans.

The DAV Legislative ratings are based on votes from 2005. If it’s on only five votes, how did Senator Mark Dayton receive a score of 92? (My math indicates the score would be based on 25 bills, each of which is worth 4 points.)

I believe that DAV has many more than 3 bills they 'favor' this year, but that number probably represents the bills of interest to DAV that have gotten to the House floor for a vote. Most of the bills to benefit veterans and the military will be 'left behind' as the 109th Congress concentrates on the 'key issues' (like Constitutional amendments for flag burning and marriage) during their final weeks of the session.

That, my friends in the Second District, is how your Congressman earns his pay: By only co-sponsoring bills that are authored by a member of his political party. How would you rate that for service to the constituents? Here is a person paid $160K a year to represent the people of Minnesota's Second District, and he squanders this opportunity to show some leadership and do something, legislatively, for the more than 420,000 veterans of Minnesota by sticking his nose up at the delegation of disabled veterans when they request that he co-sponsor legislation authored by Democrat!

P.S. to Klinefan: I'm also a 10 percent disabled vet that receives a monthly tax-free payment of $112 from the VA. It used to buy my gas to go visit my mother in the nursing home . . .